Smoking Motor

[Alpha Male]

Something I have done has made my motor heat up way too much. I mean really heat up. After running the last two batteries I noticed that I could not keep my finger on the motor for more than a second or two.....now the motor is actually smoking. I can replace the motor or upgrade easily enough, but first I have to figure out why this has happened. The gearing is the same.

Here are the mods I've done:

1) Losi Mini-T ball ends and threaded rods replaced the upper and lower links. This lengthened and lowered the truck. Lower should not make heat.
2) To lengthen the drive shafts, I cut the drive shafts in half, put each end in a section of aluminum tube with a little CA and added a section of black heat shrink to cover. Longer should not make heat.
3) I cut small sections of nitro fuel tubeing and slid them onto the output yolks to keep them from snapping off. Nothing binds, so it should not make heat.
4) I drilled out the chassis holes made for the ESC/battery mounting platforms and used them for the upper shock mounts. No way that make heat.
5) I installed red Micro-T shock springs (stretched to stock length). No problem.
6) After removing the tires from the wheels, I cut the foams down to about half and installed lead weights around the inside of the wheels. Could the extra weight be overloading the motor?

Any ideas? :-(

[ke6geu]

May be you been play alot.. hihi
Did you take that motor out take a look?
little motor not last long... If you see inside brush is just thin copper so
short life is nomal and when copper brush ware out easy to make short
circuit some time smoke motor or smoke ESC too.
If you replace with rc helly tail motor little longer has nomal brush inside
longer life...

[Alpha Male]

Originally Posted by ke6geu

May be you been play alot.. hihi
Did you take that motor out take a look?
little motor not last long... If you see inside brush is just thin copper so
short life is nomal and when copper brush ware out easy to make short
circuit some time smoke motor or smoke ESC too.
If you replace with rc helly tail motor little longer has nomal brush inside
longer life...

I had not thought of that.....the motor may just need to be replaced. I have a spare motor for a Losi Micro Desert Truck that should fit and a brushless motor/ESC for the DT, as well. Of course using the brushless system means that I will also have to use a separate receiver. Might get crowded in there. :? The brushless sounds ridiculously fast for this application and will probably do more harm than good, so I'll try the spare DT motor first.

Thanks!
Jason

[Alpha Male]

I just tried the Micro DT motor with the same results. No smoke, but plenty of heat. I'm sure it would only be a matter of time before it smoked, too.

I guess I'll try eliminating the mods one by one until I find the culprit. :-(

[caprice classic]

Lube every gear on the micro, ESP the worm gears. Worm gears are very good at gear reduction and change in direction. But they need to be lubed very very well as it's a mechanical friction drive opposed to just teeth grabbing eachother like a traditional geartrain. If they run dry, they will wear out very fast and create a ton of friction doing it.

[danhikeski]

what did you do to the driveshafts? The clear tube covering the universal joints are causing some friction. Not sure of the other tubing you have over the two sections, if it is touching both sides, it is causing friction, too.

[FuzzyZ]

extra weight could be causing it or you could have over tightened a wheel when you put them back on causing some extra drag on the drive train.

[Ax-hole]

I'd try taking the fuel tube of the shafts first

[VooDuuChild]

Originally Posted by Ax-hole

I'd try taking the fuel tube of the shafts first

me too

[hotwheels000]

Did you tighten your slipper????


If you over tighten it will bind the tranny up, causing lots of resistance and heat.


I locked mine out by using super thin double sided tape between the pads.No binding, no slippage.

[Alpha Male]

Thanks you guys. Nothing is touching, rubbing or binding (that I can see), but the heat may be due in part to the extra weight both on the wheels and on the shafts.......it just doesn't seem like it.

[QUOTE=hotwheels000;2165421]Did you tighten your slipper????


If you over tighten it will bind the tranny up, causing lots of resistance and heat.QUOTE]

My slipper started slipping badly so I tried to tighten the nut, but it would not tighten or even loosen. It was stuck in place and I could not get it off even with needlenose pliers......so I glued it. A couple of drops of CA where the nut and the gear meet, so no more slipping.

I hadn't thought of that as being the problem. I've tightened the slipper on larger vehicles without adding this much heat. :? Come to think of it though, I did seem to noticed the problem sometime after glueing it.

[hotwheels000]

Pull the tranny,remove the motor and try to spin it, you will know right away if that is the issue.

[Ax-hole]

did u try to remove the fuel tubing? seriously, its not helping.

[BEELZEBOB]

i really dont see how fuel tubing is gonna bing anything when its on the outside of the shafts.....

i have the drive shaft rings on my axial, which are exactly the same thing, and they cannot cause binding....


now your gear mesh.... check your pinion and spur. its possible that when you CA'ed yer slipper that the glue went places where it shouldnt, and is binding.

id remove the trans,check the motor and rebuild it.

Stard with your pinion and spur, then the 3 lil tranny gears on the other side.. after you rebuild it, if it still binds....

id almost suggest checking the axels for like hair or some shit.

if hair or fiber got sucked into the axels and is in the wormgears, that will bind you up good.

[BEELZEBOB]

and what springs are those?

[Alpha Male]

The springs are optional for the Micro Desert Truck and I stretched them to the same length as the stock springs. Blue is stiff, red is medium and I have a white set that are soft, which I plan to try next.